I then proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahawa, to humble ourselves before our Elohim, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions,
And I assembled them at the river that flows to Ahawa, and we camped there three days. And I looked among the people and the priests, and did not find any of the sons of Lĕ
Then we set out from the Ahawa River on the twelfth of the first month, to go to Yerushalayim. And the hand of our Elohim was upon us, and He delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambush along the way.
And there shall be a highway, and a way, and it shall be called “The Way of Set-apartness.” The unclean does not pass over it, but it is for those who walk the way, and no fools wander on it.
“And I shall lead the blind by a way they have not known – in paths they have not known I lead them. I make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These matters I shall do for them, and I shall not forsake them.
“They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither heat or sun strike them, for He who has compassion on them shall lead them, even by fountains of water guide them.
They say, ‘Why have we fasted, and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our beings, and You took no note?’ “Look, in the day of your fasting you find pleasure, and drive on all your labourers.
“Is it a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his being? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to יהוה ?
“And this shall be for you a law forever: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you afflict your beings, and do no work, the native or the stranger who sojourns among you.
“And why is יהוה bringing us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become a prey? Would it not be better for us to turn back to Mitsrayim?”
And they gathered to Mitspah and drew water, and poured it out before יהוה. And they fasted that day, and said there, “We have sinned against יהוה.” And Shemu’ĕ